Saint Peter, Paddington

feedsforthree

Mar 26

Location: 362 Oxford Street, Paddington NSW 2021
Price: $195pp tasting menu, with drinks and oyster add on $250pp
Website: https://www.saintpeter.com.au

As a special treat to mark a life milestone (in age), we went to try the long-anticipated Saint Peter by Josh Nilan – a restaurant we had long been curious about since his appearance on Masterchef. Having already tried Fish Butchery (which was pretty good but too expensive to be a regular haunt), we were excited to see first-hand the assortment of fish dishes we would be eating at the upscale Paddington version.

Note: There is a 10% discretionary service charge on the meal. To book you also need to prepay the set menu price.

As an optional add on, we decided to order the range of rock oysters they had available for $78 for a dozen (two of each type).

A tasting menu with the type of oyster, region, age and key flavours was also provided which was a useful guide. It was fun comparing each oyster to one another, working out your favourite and attempting to discern the different types of tasting notes. If you are an oyster fan like I am, I would recommend trying but it is a pretty expensive add on to an already expensive set menu.

The first dish of the night of a line caught silver trevally and rainbow runner with nashi pear, cucumber, radish and a sake jelly. All of the ingredients on this plate were served raw and it was a nice, light and refreshing dish. It was enjoyable to have a sashimi style dish that featured locally caught produced and strayed away from the Japanese centric fish that we usually consume raw. The olive oil and sake jelly provided a good balance of sweet and savoury that tied the dish together.

The salt and vinegar garfish was one of my favourite dishes that night – it was beautifully presented and a very modern and chic take on anchovy on toast. The fish was served with an olive brine, a delicious, spongey sourdough and soft yoghurt butter. You would dip the bread into the olive brine and oil combination (extra salty vs just olive oil), spread a bit of the butter and top it off with some slices of the garfish. A fun and interesting dish, and for someone who is a huge fan of cured fish, a winning dish.

For the start of the warm dishes, we had two very savoury entrée style meals. The charcoal Watsons leaping bonito and the charcoal Berrima octopus. The bonito had been pressed with a hot coal on one side, but largely left raw and very tender. Underneath was a mix of tiny cherry tomatoes, onion and sea lettuce (a seaweed/algae), all mixed together providing more flavour to the very neutral tasting bonito.

The octopus was served on a bed of yellowfin tuna nduja, a salty and quite spicy mix that complimented the tender tentacles. The octopus was perfectly cooked and lightly grilled on a hibachi, again with much of the flavour of the dish coming from the nduja underneath. Another flavourful, very savoury dish and surprisingly spicy.

The first main course was the highlight dish of the night in terms of taste. The line caught John Dory with carrots, a cube of fried rice cake and uni butter, all covered in an interesting foam. This dish was so delicious, the fish was soft and fell apart instantly. The rice cake was fried to give a crunchy element as well as break up the saltiness of the dish and the uni butter blended everything together. So delicious that I actually tucked into half of the dish before asking the person next to me if I could take a picture of their dish!

The final main course was a tuna dish that emulated a steak or small cut of fine beef. 10 day dry aged yellowfin tuna, lightly seated around the edges but perfectly pink inside. It was served with a a croquette stuffed with its fried belly, super fatty and salty, and a nice mix of smoked corn and rosemary.

I'm not usually a dessert fan but the desserts were definitely well executed and classic dishes. The snapper eye ice cream was served with a corn cake and blood plum caramel. There was no fishy taste to the ice cream at all, only a faint vanilla/yoghurt scent that cut through the acidity of the blood plum.

The Valrhona chocolate tart was delicious, made of 65% dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt, it was not sweet at all and had nice savoury undertones. The tart was very soft and paired very well with the cream. One of my favourite desserts I've had across the fine dining restaurants and I am not usually a sweet tooth.

Overall 8.5/10 – perfect execution and very creative dishes that are well thought out. Service is top notch (expected no less) and with an ever-changing menu you can easily return.

A really nice, understated and casual fine dining experience. The dishes are also quite rich in nature so end up filling you up despite the small portion sizes. Definitely somewhere I would revisit but it would have to be another special occasion to justify the price.

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